Filoli—a lavish early 20th century estate that is the last of its kind—harks back to when San Francisco’s richest families built to dazzle

“The Bourns created Filoli—it was their vision,” says collections curator Tom Rogers. “But the Roths supported it and passed it on. It was their act of holding on to things that made it all possible. They saw the future from the very beginning.”

Andrew Purvis is a John S. Knight fellow at Stanford University. Photographer Saxon Holt’s most recent book, with author John Greenlee, is The American Meadow Garden.

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